Cal Poly men’s basketball will play against UC San Diego in the opening round of the Big West Championship on March 11. The game is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Lee’s Family Forum in Henderson, Nevada, and will be broadcast on ESPN+. Cal Poly enters as the eighth seed with a record of 14-18 overall and 10-10 in conference play, while UC San Diego holds the fifth seed at 22-10 overall and 12-8 in conference.
The matchup is significant as Cal Poly is the first No. 8 seed in Big West Championship history to achieve double-digit conference wins and at least a .500 winning percentage. Both teams finished their regular seasons strong, with Cal Poly winning five of its last seven games and UC San Diego winning six of its final seven.
Sophomore guard Hamad Mousa leads Cal Poly, ranking as the nation’s 26th top scorer with an average of 20.4 points per game. The team also stands out offensively, averaging 82.5 points per game—second among Big West programs—and has scored over 90 points nine times this season. Mousa has been a consistent performer, reaching double figures in scoring in all but one appearance this year and recently surpassing the milestone of 600 points in a single season.
The winner of Wednesday’s contest will advance to face fourth-seeded CSUN in Thursday’s quarterfinals, with top-seeded UC Irvine awaiting in Friday’s semifinals. The championship game is set for Saturday evening.
Historically, Cal Poly has participated in the Big West Championship twenty times, holding a record of 14-19 and capturing its only title as a seventh seed in 2014 after defeating higher-ranked opponents throughout that tournament run. This year marks the seventeenth consecutive postseason where Cal Poly enters as a lower seed.
Cal Poly’s roster features players from nine countries across all six habitable continents—a distinction unmatched by any other Division I program this season. The team also did not lose any players to the transfer portal during the offseason, joining just four other Division I schools with that status.
As both teams prepare for their first-ever meeting at the Big West Championship, attention will be on whether Cal Poly can continue its recent momentum or if defending champion UC San Diego will advance.
